North Preston Area Watch hosts bad roads meeting at North Preston Senior Center

BRUCETION MILLS, W.Va. – North Preston Area Watch joined forces with “We Are United for Better Roads” to push forward demanding improved roads in Preston County.

A meeting was held at the North Preston Senior Center Thursday night which allowed those in attendance to speak about the road concerns, and to hear what Senator Randy Smith had to say about the road issue. Senator Smith introduced a road bill “Randy’s Dream” And it passed both the house and senate, that included transparency and concerned community members say the Governor Jim Justice vetoed that bill.

Other county officials were present to speak on the issues of the bad roads. A petition has been started gather names and information about the roads.

“I just think that it’s going to take an act of the governor to implement, you know he brought people here and we were so thankful. We have not seen that much activity in Preston County in very, very long time. However, he took them away as fast as they came,” said Samantha Stone, Preston County Commissioner.

Commissioner Stone said that she believes that if the road workers that Governor Justice sent to Preston County continued to work longer there could have been a lot more improvement seen.

“To say we didn’t see anything, we did, we’re thankful for that but we’re not so, um I really think you know bring national guard here, bring somebody outside of our contractors, and outside of our DOH workers because we need a true infusion, a true injection right in the arm that’s going to get us to where we’re not playing catch up. We should not have on a list of 2019 projects in 2018. We shouldn’t be holding off and dragging our feet for funding, and then see another infusion because we’re rolling over into a new fiscal year. We need to get all the help here to get us caught up,” said Stone.

Attendees expressed their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions about the bad road problem that residents currently experiencing.

“We are trying to get the people to stand up, to come together and make our voices heard,” said Bankhead.

Many residents stated they feel the concerns of the bad roads are not being addressed and that it is a biggest safety issue in the county. Preston County is still under a State of Emergency due to the road situation, commissioners said they have no intention of lifting that until issues are resolved.

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